Good post Deaths Head 420. Hitler was the main problem when you bring up the interesting topic of “Liberators over conquerors.” That’s what most Russian tows viewed them as in the beginning but the Enzestsgruppen units quickly ruined relations with their exterminations and other atrocities. Those units wore a uniform almost identical to the SS with the main difference being the collar patches were not the same and they were not allowed an honor band around the sleeve.
To almost any civilian, this mistook them for the “SS” who, in the beginning, were more than willing to treat the Russian civilians fairly because of the help they were giving. The Luftwaffe felt the same way. Hitler and Himmler however were behind the continuation of war atrocities. Hitler would have died at some point soon and if he was assasinated things could have been far different.
That’s all speculation but in my opinion, if a man like Rommel would have been successor to the Fuhrer after an assasination, the German war effort could have gone a completely different direction since Rommel was a pragmatist and in no way anti semtatic. Hitlers successor Goerring was also not anti-sematic and under the influence of his wife who had many Jewish friends, secretly helped jews out of Nazi occupied territory and spared the lives of some in custody.
I believe the real problems withing the Reich affecting the war effort were Hitlers and Himmlers diabolical insanity and the lack of a cognitive, centralized leadership between the Weihrmacht, Navy, Luftwaffe and the SS.